Floodplain conservation in the Mississippi River Valley: combining spatial analysis,landowner outreach,and market assessment to enhance land protection for the Atchafalaya River Basin,Louisiana, U.S.A.

Threats to riverine landscapes are often the result of system‐wide river management policy, located far from where the threats appear, or both. As a result, the rationale for land protection to achieve floodplain conservation and restoration has shifted to require that lands must also have multiple and systemic threat abatement benefits. The Mississippi River Flood of 2011 highlighted the need for increased floodplain complexes along the Mississippi River to provide both systemic threat abatement and conservation benefits. We used spatial analysis, landowner outreach, and market assessment to examine ways to enhance land protection in the Atchafalaya River Basin Floodway, the largest river basin swamp North America and the site of two employed floodway locations during the 2011 flood. We identified six Priority Conservation Areas (77,084 ha) in the floodway that are largely privately owned (mean 78.2 ± 6.4%), with forest dominated by Taxodium distichum (baldcypress) and hydrologic and water quality characteristics considered most suitable for baldcypress regeneration (31.2 ± 2.4% and 10.2 ± 3.0% of area, respectively). Landowners expressed high (80%) interest in land protection programs and found the range of property values derived from market analyzes (minimal protection—$346 USD/ha; additional protections—up to $2,223 USD/ha) to be reasonable. We seek to: (1) enhance current land protection in the Atchafalaya River Basin and (2) provide a model for using land protection to increase the number of floodplains for both systemic threat abatement and conservation benefits.     

Increasing substrate heterogeneity as a bet‐hedging strategy for restoring wetland vegetation

Mimicking the natural heterogeneity of wetland substrates, e.g. by roughening surface soil or constructing hummocks, has been shown to facilitate wetland plant establishment. We asked if incorporating substrate heterogeneity could also help plants withstand variation in moisture levels. In a wetland with Carex stricta (tussock sedge) as the main restoration target, we manipulated substrates to create different soil moisture environments for planted C. stricta plugs. Our artificial mounds mimicked tussocks formed by C. stricta in natural meadows (circa 10–40 cm in height); we also varied mound compositions and created shallow depressions. Monitoring demonstrated variation in soil moisture among our treatments and natural differences in soil moisture between experimental blocks. Additionally, rainfall varied from severe drought in year 1 to extreme rainfall in year 2. Plug survival, flowering, cover, biomass, leaf length, and growth rate all varied with treatment, block, and/or year. Interactions among those factors were common. Planting plugs in shallow depressions exacerbated stress in a wet block during a wet year, causing low survival. Planting plugs in moisture‐retaining peat pots allowed them to survive and sustain growth even in a dry block during a dry year. We conclude that heterogeneous substrates can be used to hedge against environmental variability by widening the range of microsites available within a restoration site and thereby moderating stressful conditions in some areas.     

Long‐term declines in multiple waterbird species in a tidal embayment,south‐east Australia

Worldwide, local extinctions and severe declines in waterbird densities are being reported from many important waterbird sites. Waterbird sites often exist as a network, collectively providing crucial habitat for different life history stages of different species. Therefore, population changes at one site may strongly influence others. In Australia, many waterbird species are highly mobile, and move rapidly over long distances in response to rainfall. Large tidal wetlands often serve as drought refugia or alternative breeding habitat for these species. These sites are also the migration terminus of many species of shorebirds that spend their non‐breeding season in Australia. One such site in south‐eastern Australia is Western Port, a Ramsar‐listed tidal embayment forming part of the East Asian–Australasian Shorebird Site Network. We measured waterbird population trends over nearly 40 years in Western Port to see whether changes showed consistent trends over time across multiple species. Thirty‐nine species were recorded often enough to allow an analysis of trends over time using dynamic linear models and, where appropriate, piecewise linear regression. Twenty‐two species had declined, including four species of duck, five species of fish‐eating bird (cormorants, terns and pelicans), one species each of grebe, gull and heron, and 10 species of shorebird. Only two species (Australian pied oystercatcher Haematopus longirostris and straw‐necked ibis Threskiornis spinicollis) increased significantly over the same time period. Patterns of decline in non‐migratory waterbirds may reflect diminishing wetland availability, local reductions in fish prey, increased predation pressure and changes in inland wetland resources. Declines in migratory shorebirds are most likely related to loss of habitat elsewhere in their trans‐equatorial migration routes. These trends in waterbirds that use Western Port reflect widespread impacts on populations elsewhere in Australia and overseas, necessitating more than simply local management of this tidal embayment.     

不同时期艾比湖湿地盐角草群落土壤固氮微生物的多样性分析

【目的】研究新疆艾比湖湿地不同季节盐角草根际和非根际土壤固氮微生物的多样性和丰富度与环境因子的相关性,以期探究在荒漠化和盐渍化不断严重的艾比湖湿地中随着季节变化的固氮微生物群落对恢复生态功能起到的潜在作用,为后续的湿地保护和退化恢复工作提供理论支持和数据基础。【方法】应用Illumina HiSeq PE250测序技术,分析6个土壤样本固氮微生物的多样性,结合相关的理化因子并利用RDA分析法探究土壤理化性质和固氮微生物菌落结构及丰富度的相关性。【结果】艾比湖湿地盐角草植物根际土壤的固氮微生物多样性高于非根际土壤,7月的土壤固氮微生物多样性高于10月和4月的土壤。土杆菌属(Geobacter)、假单胞菌属(Pseudomonas)、固氮菌属(Azotobacter)和慢生根瘤菌属(Bradyrhizobium)等为盐角草根际和非根际土壤中的共同优势菌属。这些固氮微生物优势菌属隶属于变形菌门(Proteobacteria)和蓝藻门(Cyanobacteria),且相对丰富度占比为85%和10%,其余各菌门共占比较少,仅为5%。土壤中固氮微生物的优势菌群与碱解氮(AN)、全氮(TN)、速效钾(AK)和有效磷(TP)呈显著相关。【结论】随着时间的推移土壤样本中固氮微生物的多样性和群落结构也发了改变,同一时期植物根际与非根际土壤中固氮微生物的群落结构并不相同。土壤的环境因子与固氮细菌的群落结构和丰富度的相关性研究可以为艾比湖湿地的退化恢复提供数据基础和理论支持。     

Aquatic macroinvertebrate community responses to wetland mitigation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

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Distribution of candidate division JS1 and other Bacteria in tidal sediments of the German Wadden Sea using targeted 16S rRNA gene PCR-DGGE

The bacterial candidate division JS1 dominates a number of 16S rRNA gene libraries from deep subseafloor sediments, yet its distribution in shallow, subsurface sediments has still to be fully documented. Sediment cores (down to 5.5 m) from Wadden Sea tidal flats (Neuharlingersieler Nacken and Gr?ninger Plate) were screened for JS1 16S rRNA genes using targeted PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), which also detects some other important Bacteria. Bacterial subpopulations at both sites were dominated by Gammaproteobacteria in the upper sediment layers (down to 2 m) and in deeper layers by members of the Chloroflexi. The deeper layers of Neuharlingersieler Nacken consisted of grey mud with low sulphate (0.1-10 mM), elevated total organic carbon (TOC) ( approximately 1-2%) and JS1 sequences were abundant. In contrast, the deeper sandy layers of Gr?ninger Plate, despite also having reduced sulphate concentrations, had lower TOC (<0.6%) with few detectable JS1 sequences. Results indicated that JS1 prefers muddy, shallow, subsurface sediments with reduced sulphate, whereas Chloroflexi may out-compete JS1 in shallow, sandy, subsurface sediments. Bacterial population changes at both sites ( approximately 2 m) were confirmed by cluster analysis of DGGE profiles, which correlated with increased recalcitrance of the organic matter. This study extends the biogeographical range of JS1. The presence of JS1 and Chloroflexi in Wadden Sea sediments demonstrates that subsurface tidal flats contain similar prokaryotic populations to those found in the deeper subseafloor biosphere.     

南大港湿地飞蝗种群分布与芦苇空间格局的关系

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Secretive marsh bird habitat relationships at mid-continent spring migration stopover sites

Despite several secretive marsh bird (SMB) species being listed as critically imperiled throughout the mid-continent of North America, limited information on SMB distribution and habitat use within primary migratory corridors results in uncertainty on contributions of wetlands in mid-latitude states toward their annual cycle needs. Our objectives were to quantify temporal patterns of SMB wetland occupancy during spring migration at a mid-latitude state and evaluate the relationships between SMB colonization probability and water-level management practices, and the resulting habitat conditions during spring migration. We conducted a 2-year, dynamic occupancy study (2013–2014) that included 6 rounds of repeated call-back surveys to detect the presence of 5 SMB species (i.e., Virginia rail [Rallus limicola], sora [Porzana carolina], king rail [R. elegans], least bittern [Ixobrychus exilis], and American bittern [Botaurus lentiginosus]) during spring (Apr–Jun) on 107 wetlands across 8 conservation areas and 4 national wildlife refuges throughout Missouri, USA. We detected sora most frequently, followed by least bittern, American bittern, Virginia rail, and king rail. Coefficient estimates indicated colonization probability for all species was positively associated with emergent vegetation cover and negatively associated with amount of open water. Open water was the only variable in the best supported model explaining American bittern site colonization, to which they were negatively associated. Virginia rail colonization had a strong positive association with vegetation height, whereas least bittern and sora site colonization were influenced positively by water depth and agriculture, respectively. Based on the habitat associations within and among SMB species identified in this study, wetland managers can tailor management strategies to optimize spring migration habitat for single- or multi-species objectives.     

Intensified inundation shifts a freshwater wetland from a CO2 sink to a source

Climate change has altered global precipitation patterns and has led to greater variation in hydrological conditions. Wetlands are important globally for their soil carbon storage. Given that wetland carbon processes are primarily driven by hydrology, a comprehensive understanding of the effect of inundation is needed. In this study, we evaluated the effect of water level (WL) and inundation duration (ID) on carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluxes by analysing a 10‐year (2008–2017) eddy covariance dataset from a seasonally inundated freshwater marl prairie in the Everglades National Park. Both gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) rates showed declines under inundation. While GPP rates decreased almost linearly as WL and ID increased, ER rates were less responsive to WL increase beyond 30 cm and extended inundation periods. The unequal responses between GPP and ER caused a weaker net ecosystem CO₂ sink strength as inundation intensity increased. Eventually, the ecosystem tended to become a net CO₂ source on a daily basis when either WL exceeded 46 cm or inundation lasted longer than 7 months. Particularly, with an extended period of high‐WLs in 2016 (i.e., WL remained >40 cm for >9 months), the ecosystem became a CO₂ source, as opposed to being a sink or neutral for CO₂ in other years. Furthermore, the extreme inundation in 2016 was followed by a 4‐month postinundation period with lower net ecosystem CO₂ uptake compared to other years. Given that inundation plays a key role in controlling ecosystem CO₂ balance, we suggest that a future with more intensive inundation caused by climate change or water management activities can weaken the CO₂ sink strength of the Everglades freshwater marl prairies and similar wetlands globally, creating a positive feedback to climate change.